I gave the place a name: Camp Sisyphus. Every refugee in the camp has to make a case for why he deserves asylum. And there are strict legal guidelines. Teams of non-governmental-organization-sponsored lawyers, charities, and United Nations people are on hand trying to help them jump through the necessary legal hoops.

If you can prove that you were fleeing war or political or religious persecution, you have a chance. Everyone has a story. Some are believable, others less so. Razz, a young Nigerian, told me he had fled a secret cult of witchdoctors who tried to recruit him into their coven, then stabbed and left him for dead.

If you are unable to prove that you were fleeing something other than mere poverty, you have little hope of gaining legal entry to Europe. After months in the camp, it becomes clear to many that they will be sent back. This leads to a sense of desperation in the camp of a couple thousand angry men with little to lose. It made the place feel, at all times, volatile. I could feel it as I walked through the camp.

Erdogan has said one of his goals is to forge a “pious generation” in predominantly Muslim Turkey “that will work for the construction of a new civilization.” His recent speeches have emphasized Turkey’s Ottoman history and domestic achievements over Western ideas and influences. Reviving Imam Hatip, or Imam and Preacher, schools is part of Erdogan’s drive to put religion at the heart of national life after decades of secular dominance, and his old school is just one beneficiary of a government program to pump billions of dollars into religious education.

Reuters revealed in October that Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE.N) software known as ArcSight, used to help secure the Pentagon’s computers, had been reviewed by a Russian military contractor with close ties to Russia’s security services.

Now, a Reuters review of hundreds of U.S. federal procurement documents and Russian regulatory records shows that the potential risks to the U.S. government from Russian source code reviews are more widespread.

Ahead of Iraq’s May parliamentary elections, Iranian-backed militias announced the formation of a coalition called al Fatah al Mubin (Manifest Victory). It is led by Hadi al Ameri, chief of the Badr Organization and current Iraqi parliamentarian, who has close ties to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). Qods Force chief Qassem Soleimani called Ameri a “living martyr” last year. The IRGC-backed coalition is poised to shape the next Iraqi government, highlighting the new political order.

Scores of Republicans viewed the controversial memo in secure settings at the Capitol and concluded that it contains hard evidence that the special counsel investigation into whether Trump’s campaign officials had improper contacts with Russia were sparked by the politically-motivated actions of senior FBI and Department of Justice officials.

While UNRWA [United Nations Relief and Works Agency] provides support to some 5.3 million Palestinians they claim are refugees, the actual number could be closer to 20,000. This disclosure could fundamentally shift the narrative with UNRWA and lead the United States to consider cutting even more of its funding to the agency.

Most upper-class students at service academies have lost faith in the system, because it’s based on lies. First, these places produce about one new officer in five nowadays, far fewer than their glory days. Most other officers come from Reserve Officers’ Training Corps programs, Officer Candidate School, or direct commissions. West Point (USMA) produces about half the number of officers of Army ROTC. Service academy graduates cost taxpayers about half a million dollars each plus wrap-around health care and so on, four times what the average ROTC officer costs and eight times what OCS costs.

That’s right: you can go to Virginia Tech ROTC for four years, put on a uniform a day or two a week, party as you like, have sex when you want (sex is forbidden at the academies), major in what you want, graduate, and serve alongside academy graduates—and no data show you’ll be a worse officer. The students know this because they all have iPhones and Google.

Later:

Another of the big lies, as Heffington shows, is the assertion that military academy students are the “best and the brightest.” I can’t tell whether the military brass really have no clue, or this is just hype to keep the tax dollars flowing and make the students feel it’s worth it. In fact, our SAT scores are about 100 points per test lower than Ivy-level schools, and the spread between upper and lower levels much greater. About 20 percent of our class consists of students recruited for athletics or given preferential admission to achieve racial goals (meaning non-white), and cannot get in even at the low level of SAT scores of 600 on each test with As and Bs in high school.

Today, the administration began to take just that series of steps. In an executive order signed this morning, the president instructed the departments of Health and Human Services, Labor, and Treasury to begin rule-making processes in three areas. They are to allow short-term health coverage to last a full year and be renewable, to enable the expansion of so-called “association health-plans” that let small employers band together to offer coverage, and to allow employers to offer health-reimbursement arrangements to help their employees pay for coverage and care with pre-tax dollars.

The idea in all three cases is to engage in some deregulation of the sort Republicans were hoping to advance by legislation, but in the absence of such action by Congress. Each move would give some of the people who now find themselves with few options in the individual market some more options and at a lower cost. But because these steps are being taken from within the framework of Obamacare and without new legislation, all three moves are also likely to further destabilize the exchanges and complicate the situation of insurers offering coverage in the individual market. It has been unclear all year whether most Republicans, in Congress and in the administration, view such destabilization as a feature or a bug. And that confusion is likely to increase now, as Congress confronts new pressures to act in the coming months.

The IRGC is responsible for numerous terror attacks on American troops over the years and has played a key role in interfering with U.S. operations in Syria. A bipartisan consensus in Congress has already backed such a designation, but key Obama-era holdovers and top national security officials who have the president’s ear are urging him to refrain, according to multiple sources who spoke to the Free Beacon.

Prosecutors were unable to produce a smoking gun demonstrating that New Jersey’s senior senator explicitly promised to do something for his co-defendant, Florida eye doctor Salomon Melgen, in exchange for a gift or campaign contribution.

Barack Obama’s presidential library in Chicago won’t include a library. The physical documents from Obama’s administration will be stored in facilities near Washington, D.C. A digital archive will be available in the library, although it will be difficult to verify whether digital copies of all of the administration’s documents will have been created and made available.

U.S. officials consider the abduction an unusually bold act in a long-simmering spy game between Washington and Beijing, one recently overshadowed by a newly aggressive Russia. But U.S. officials and China experts say the two countries are engaged in an espionage battle that may be just as fierce, if far less publicized.

Iraq’s central government refuses to negotiate with Iraqi Kurdistan until the latter disavows the result of the referendum where the vast majority of voters supported independence for Kurdistan. The government in Baghdad has cut off international flights to airports in Kurdistan and it has stopped selling U.S. dollars to banks in Kurdistan.